


the quiet

by aphrodite_mine



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Episode Tag, Feminist Rage, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-03
Updated: 2012-02-03
Packaged: 2017-10-30 13:42:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/332355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aphrodite_mine/pseuds/aphrodite_mine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Your date with Tom went well?"</p><p>"How did you--" Ann exhales quickly and shakes her head. She doesn't know whether to blame April or Leslie for this, and finds that frustrating. Course, if she weren't friends with Leslie, she wouldn't be hounded by documentarians week after week. And, okay, normally she doesn't mind. But today she's not in the mood. Actually, she hasn't been in the mood for awhile. "Never mind. It was fine."</p>
            </blockquote>





	the quiet

**Author's Note:**

> Missing scene from "Operation Ann." This is meta, and possibly whiny and indulgent. I feel a little better after writing it, though, so that's good.

There's a knock at her office door, and when Ann looks up and sees the camera through the window she only sighs and waves them in.

"Care to tell us about last night?"

Ann narrows her eyes. "Not really, no." She presses her lips together in what she hopes is a firm gesture that she doesn't want to talk. 

"Your date with Tom went well?"

"How did you--" Ann exhales quickly and shakes her head. She doesn't know whether to blame April or Leslie for this, and finds that frustrating. Course, if she weren't friends with Leslie, she wouldn't be hounded by documentarians week after week. And, okay, normally she doesn't mind. But today she's not in the mood. Actually, she hasn't been in the mood for awhile. "Never mind. It was fine."

"Fine?"

"We talked, had a few drinks. We're friends, okay. Or friends of friends. I'd rather go out with him than any of those other guys Leslie dragged in." It's true. Tom's... basically a scumbag, but Ann doesn't hate having him around. He's like a weird little brother. One who really, really wants to have sex with her.

Yeah, not the best analogy.

There's a good minute of silence between them, Ann alternating between staring at the little blinking red dot and pretending to get work done. "You sound upset. Is something going on with Leslie?" And maybe because she's been thinking about this all night, and maybe because they end up cutting Ann's footage half the time anyway, but Ann takes her hands from the computer keyboard, holding them up in an act of surrender. 

"I want to punch her in the face." The words aren't exactly shocking to Ann herself, but she collects herself quickly, feeling the emotions rise to the surface in the form of tears pricking at her eyes. "Assault should be legal is someone is being a jerk, and Leslie, I'm sorry, is being a jerk."

The room is silent, interrupted only by a small scraping of a chair leg down the hall, and Ann's erratic breathing, trying, probably in vain, to keep from crying.

"I love her. I do. And I love Ben, and I should be happy for them." She blinks. "I _am_ happy for them. I mean, it's a rare thing, right? That you meet someone who really gets you?" Ann takes a moment, finally clearing her throat and dashing her fist against her eyes as quickly and cleanly as possible, which, in retrospect, isn't very. "But she's being a jerk."

Rob opens his mouth, but Ann already knows what he's going to ask. "Suddenly being single is this huge crime? And I'm..." Ann exhales. "Not the biggest word in her cloud anymore."

He seems to think better of asking a follow-up question, and just nods and says "Thanks for your time, Ann," before turning to leave. She stops him before she can think better of it, before she can mull this over and decide, like always, that's she better off keeping it to herself. 

"I'm not jealous, okay?" But then, she thinks, she is. Leslie's all campaign and work and waffles lately, and Ben gets all of that. "Okay. I am jealous. I miss my best friend." Ann shrugs, finally not caring that the camera isn't even running or that she should really just give in to crying. "Don't tell her, okay? Leslie's got enough on her plate right now without me hanging on." She swipes at her face one more time and squares her shoulders. "She's amazing, and she's gonna win this election, and I just miss her."

She's done, and Rob makes the escape while he can, but Ann can't help feeling that she left something out.


End file.
